BJs RESTAURANTS INC

REPORT OF INDEPENDENT REGIST ERED PUBLIC ACCOUNTING FIRM

To the Shareholders and the Board of Directors

BJ’s Restaurants, Inc.:

Opinion on the Consolidated Financial Statements

We have audited the accompanying consolidated balance sheets of BJ's Restaurants, Inc. and subsidiaries (the Company) as of January 2, 2024 and January 3, 2023, the related consolidated statements of operations, shareholders’ equity, and cash flows for each of the years in the three-year period ended January 2, 2024, and the related notes (collectively, the consolidated financial statements). In our opinion, the consolidated financial statements present fairly, in all material respects, the financial position of the Company as of January 2, 2024 and January 3, 2023, and the results of its operations and its cash flows for each of the years in the three-year period ended January 2, 2024, in conformity with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles.

We also have audited, in accordance with the standards of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States) (PCAOB), the Company’s internal control over financial reporting as of January 2, 2024, based on criteria established in Internal Control – Integrated Framework (2013)issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission, and our report dated February 27, 2024 expressed an unqualified opinion on the effectiveness of the Company’s internal control over financial reporting.

Basis for Opinion

These consolidated financial statements are the responsibility of the Company’s management. Our responsibility is to express an opinion on these consolidated financial statements based on our audits. We are a public accounting firm registered with the PCAOB and are required to be independent with respect to the Company in accordance with the U.S. federal securities laws and the applicable rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the PCAOB.

We conducted our audits in accordance with the standards of the PCAOB. Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the consolidated financial statements are free of material misstatement, whether due to error or fraud. Our audits included performing procedures to assess the risks of material misstatement of the consolidated financial statements, whether due to error or fraud, and performing procedures that respond to those risks. Such procedures included examining, on a test basis, evidence regarding the amounts and disclosures in the consolidated financial statements. Our audits also included evaluating the accounting principles used and significant estimates made by management, as well as evaluating the overall presentation of the consolidated financial statements. We believe that our audits provide a reasonable basis for our opinion.

Critical Audit Matters

The critical audit matter communicated below is a matter arising from the current period audit of the consolidated financial statements that was communicated or required to be communicated to the audit committee and that: (1) relates to accounts or disclosures that are material to the consolidated financial statements and (2) involved our especially challenging, subjective, or complex judgments. The communication of a critical audit matter does not alter in any way our opinion on the consolidated financial statements, taken as a whole, and we are not, by communicating the critical audit matter below, providing a separate opinion on the critical audit matter or on the accounts or disclosures to which it relates.

Evaluation of long-lived assets for impairment

As discussed in Note 1 to the consolidated financial statements, the Company assesses long-lived assets for potential impairment whenever events or changes in circumstances indicate that the carrying value may not be recoverable. Factors considered include, but are not limited to, significant underperformance by a restaurant relative to historical or projected future operating results, significant changes in the manner of use of the assets or the strategy for the overall business, significant negative industry or economic trends, and the Company’s expectation to dispose of long-lived assets before the end of their previously estimated useful lives. The property and equipment, net, and operating lease asset balances as of January 2, 2024 were $525.2 million and $350.1 million, respectively.

We identified the evaluation of potential indicators of impairment of long-lived assets as a critical audit matter. Subjective auditor judgment was required to evaluate the Company’s assessment of whether any of the following were potential indicators for impairment: (1) restaurant-level cash flow results relative to historical and projected future operating results for underperforming restaurants, 2) significant changes in the manner of use of the assets or the strategy for the overall business, and 3) the impact of significant negative industry or economic trends on restaurant-level results.

The following are the primary procedures we performed to address this critical audit matter. We evaluated the design and tested the operating effectiveness of certain internal controls related to the Company’s long-lived asset impairment process, including controls related to the identification and evaluation of potential indicators of impairment. We assessed the Company’s identification and evaluation of potential indicators of impairment by:

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comparing the restaurant-level cash flows of certain restaurants to historical operating results and projected future results

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considering other events or changes in circumstances that impact restaurant-level operating results for certain restaurants

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reading board of directors meeting minutes for significant changes in the manner of the use of the assets or the strategy of the overall business

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considering available industry and economic information for significant negative trends.

/s/ KPMG LLP

We have served as the Company’s auditor since 2021.

Los Angeles, California

February 27, 2024